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Is Your Electrical Equipment Safe?
Almost every workplace uses a wide variety of electrical equipment throughout the day. Whether it’s your data and communication setup, your dishwasher, your power tools or your heating system, you want the peace of mind that comes with knowing the equipment you use is safe.
Having licensed Adelaide electricians regularly check your electrical equipment is important for several reasons. Not only are you keeping your workforce safe, but you’ll prolong the life of valuable and often expensive appliances and equipment as well. You will also assure compliance with important government business safety regulations.
Testing and tagging your electrical equipment is a key part of a well-rounded risk management plan for small business owners looking to improve their electrical safety. Here are five excellent reasons why testing and tagging your electrical equipment should be at the top of your safety to-do list.
1. Help to identify potential electrical hazards
Having your electrical equipment tested and tagged by accredited Adelaide electricians will help you to identify and help prevent possible electrical hazards. If you discover any malfunctioning electrical equipment, you can have it fixed or replaced before it becomes a danger.
How often you should have your electrics tested depends on the environment. According to Safe Work SA, equipment used in factories, workshops, or in commercial cleaning operations, should be tested once every six months. For appliances used in homes, boarding houses or hostels, it’s ok to have them tested once every two years. Equipment should always be tested in line with Standard Australia’s AS/NZS 3760.
2. Stay up-to-date with your Safety Plan
Every business needs to comply with state and federal safety regulations. To make sure you’re meeting these vital requirements in your workplace, the regular testing and tagging of electrical appliances by a qualified electrical contractor should become an integral part of your overall office safety plan. Using testing to gain insight into where problems could occur allows you to successfully manage your overall risk and stay in the loop with any regulations that apply to your business.
3. Manage replacements efficiently
When your business’ equipment breaks down unexpectedly, it’s not just an increased danger risk that you need to worry about. It also forces your staff to take costly breaks while you organise a replacement. By having your equipment tested regularly by a qualified electrician, you can find potential issues before they occur and get them fixed or replaced without interrupting workflow.
4. Ensure personal and equipment safety
People working in a home office should also consider getting their electrical equipment tested and tagged on a regular basis. Though not all equipment is required to be tested, there is a need to protect sensitive equipment such as computers, printers, audio visual appliances and monitors from dangerous situations, like power surges. Testing equipment also uncovers other dangerous developments such as damage to plugs, cords and protective insulation.
5. Test tripping mechanisms
Any electrical safety system, no matter how expertly installed, is only as reliable as its weakest link. Often the biggest vulnerability for vital equipment lies in the possibility of power surges. The best defence against a power surge is installing a surge protector and electrical safety switches, such as Residual Current Devices (RCD).
However, RCDs and other safety switches can’t ever be 100% safety guaranteed. Without regular testing, some of these safety switches may not be working as efficiently as they should. In fact, some could put you, your workmates and your valuable electrical equipment in danger. Testing and tagging will help you to understand where the weaknesses lie in your plan against these emergencies.
Why is tagging as well as testing important?
Following an electrical test, tagging is a way of identifying to the user whether or not any electrical equipment is faulty. Equipment that’s found to be unsafe is tagged and removed from use. Tags can contain information such as the date of the test, the name of the tester, and are often colour-coded according to the level of risk. All tags should be non-metallic and non-reusable.
Testing and tagging go hand in hand as the best way to make sure your office is safe for everyone. As long as testing and tagging are included in your electrical safety plan, any issues with equipment can be diagnosed, resolved or removed early on.
For maximum safety, testing and tagging should always be undertaken by a qualified electrical contractor.
If your safety tests are overdue, contact TPR Electrical, experienced and professional Adelaide electricians who can check and tag your electrical equipment.